Senate goes for 'nuclear option'

The Senate approved a historic rules change on Thursday by eliminating the use of the filibuster on all presidential nominees except those to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Invoking the long-threatened “nuclear option” means that most of President Barack Obama’s judicial and executive branch nominees no longer need to clear a 60-vote threshold to reach the Senate floor and get an up-or-down vote.

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Speaking at the White House, Obama praised the Senate action, accusing Republicans of attempting to block his nominees based on politics alone, not on the merits of the nominee.

“This isn’t obstruction on substance, on qualifications. It’s just to gum up the works,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) used the nuclear option Thursday morning, meaning he called for a vote to change the Senate rules by a simple majority vote. It passed, 52 to 48. Three Democrats voted against changing the rules — Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.

“It’s time to change the Senate before this institution becomes obsolete,” Reid said in a lengthy floor speech on Thursday morning.

A furious Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who tried to recess the Senate for the day before the rules change could get a vote, said after the minority’s power was limited by Democrats: “I don’t think this is a time to be talking about reprisal. I think it’s a time to be sad about what has been done to the United States Senate.”

But McConnell quickly noted that Republicans could fix the problem in the upcoming midterm elections if they regain the majority: “The solution to this problem is an election. The solution to this problem is at the ballot box. We look forward to having a great election on 2014.”

The debate over the filibuster — and specifically its use on D.C. Circuit nominees — has been raging for nearly a decade, stretching back to when George W. Bush was president and Democrats were in the minority. But changing the Senate rules has always been avoided through a piecemeal deal, a gentleman’s agreement or a specific solution, not a historic change to the very fabric of the Senate.

But since Obama’s nomination, the “nuclear option” has reared its head three times in less than a year — each time getting closer to the edge. Many in the Senate privately expected that this go-round would be yet another example of saber rattling, but Reid said pressure was increasing within his own party to change the rules.

The blockade of three consecutive nominees to a powerful appellate court was too much for Democrats to handle — and Reid felt compelled to pull the trigger, explaining that “this is the way it has to be.”

It didn’t take long for Republicans to begin circulating both Reid’s and Obama’s past statements opposing a rules change. But the majority leader said that things escalated to a level that even he had not thought possible in 2005, when a “Gang of 14” banded together to stop a rules change.

“They have done everything they can to deny the fact that Obama has been elected and then reelected,” he said. “I have a right to change how I feel about things.”

Senate Democrats were quick to use their newfound powers, voting in the early afternoon to end the filibuster on Patricia Millett’s nomination to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The vote was 55-43, with two senators voting present. Before the change earlier Thursday, Millett would have needed 60 votes to clear the procedural hurdle and move on to a confirmation vote. But now, she needed just 51 to advance.

In his speech, Obama noted that in the few decades before he took office, about 20 nominees were filibustered. Since he took office, close to 30 judicial and political nominees have had their nominations blocked.

“It’s no secret that the American people have probably never been more frustrated with Washington, and one of the reasons why that is, is that over the past five years, we’ve seen an unprecedented pattern of obstruction in Congress that’s prevented too much of the American people’s business from getting done,” Obama said. “Today’s pattern of obstruction just isn’t normal. We can’t allow it to become normal.”

Obama also cited the filibuster of a gun control bill earlier this year, although Thursday’s rule change would preserve the filibuster for Supreme Court picks and legislation.